“From entertainment to sports broadcasting… The pursuit of ‘Coupang Play’”
Coupang’s online video streaming ( OTT ) platform Coupang Play surpassed 1 million users per day for the first time this year. While the flagship entertainment content ‘ SNL Korea’ started its fourth season on the 15th of last month, the number of users increased rapidly due to the broadcast of the large-scale sports event ‘Coupang Play Series’.
According to data analysis platform Mobile메이저놀이터 Index, on July 30, the number of daily users of Coupang Play recorded 1.15 million. This is the first time that the number of daily users has exceeded 1 million.
The sudden jump in the number of users, who had normally stayed in the 600,000 range, is due to the large-scale soccer event ‘Coupang Play Series’ directly hosted by Coupang Play. On this day, Coupang Play broadcast live the match between Manchester City and Atletico Madrid held at Seoul World Cup Stadium from 8:00 pm on its platform.
Even before the game, the news that Coupang Play had arranged the visits of European professional soccer teams Manchester City and Atletico Madrid to Korea raised the expectations of domestic soccer fans to the fullest. Only members of Coupang’s Wow membership could watch the live broadcast through Coupang Play. For this reason, the number of newly installed Coupang Play apps also exceeded 50,000.
Previously, Coupang Play released a coupon that allows free viewing of the new ‘John Wick 4’, which was released in theaters less than two months ago in June, and the number of daily users exceeded 900,000. Many users flocked to Coupang Play’s events as other OTT services such as Watcha and Wave were paying 11,000 won.
Coupang Play surpassed this with this sports broadcast. The ‘Coupang Play Series’ is a sports event directly hosted, supervised, and relayed by Coupang Play. Last year, Son Heung-min’s team Tottenham Hotspur was invited to Korea for the first time. On the day of the first match between Tottenham and the Korean K-League national team, the number of users reached 1.85 million a day. As a result, the number of daily users outpaced competing OTT in-teaching and Wave.
The event schedule related to the ‘Coupang Play Series’ is still pending. Immediately on the 2nd, an interview video of Blackpink Jisoo meeting with Manchester City representative striker Elling Hollan will be released at 6pm. On the 3rd, a live broadcast of the match between Paris Saint-Germain ( PSG ), a French professional football team to which Lee Kang-in belongs, and Jeonbuk Hyundai will be broadcast live, so it is expected that users will flock again.
Coupang Play, which had been ranked third among domestic OTTs , recorded 4.86 million monthly users as of June this year, surpassing Wave (3.94 million) and narrowing the gap with TVing (5.19 million). Unlike competing OTT services , it is attracting subscribers by increasing exclusive broadcasting of major domestic and international sports events in addition to dramas and entertainment programs.